Brawl In The Corridor
by maraudersmaps
Summary: Younger students whispered as they walked hurriedly past the scene currently unfolding before them. Someone had made James Potter angry.


"No, James! _He's not worth it_."

"Leave it, Moony. I, for one, am all set to give him a good kick up the arse-"

"Sirius, you're hardly placating James right now."

"Who says I want to? I've been itching to give that Avery a beating for a while now, anyway."

Younger students whispered as they walked hurriedly past the scene currently unfolding before them.

Someone had made James Potter angry.

The sixth-year in question was currently being restrained by two of his fellow Marauders, while the fourth stood a few metres away and rolled his eyes, arguing with the sensible Prefect of the group.

"Just - let - me - I - will - _kill _- him -"

"James, do you _want _suspension? McGonagall will _murder _you for making Gryffindor-Slytherin ties even weaker!"

"Don't - care - Moony - Wormtail - _get - off -_"

Peter glanced at Remus, awaiting orders, his hands clutching handfuls of James' robes desperately as the Quidditch Captain wriggled and writhed unsuccessfully.

"_Padfoot_ -" James shot Sirius Black an angry look that clearly screamed get-me-out-of-this-you-idiot. His jaw set in a straight line, his eyes blazing with smouldering anger, Sirius complied.

"Seriously, Moony. If you don't let him now, he'll just run off later."

Remus considered this. After a few silent moments, wherein James had stopped struggling, the Gryffindor Prefect let out an exasperated sigh and let go of James' robes. Peter quickly followed suit. At that exact moment, James tore himself away from his friends and began to storm down the corridor, mumbling words like "kill" "beat" and "how dare" under his breath, his robes billowing behind him. He looked ready to murder.

Sirius allowed himself a small smirk and quickly followed the enraged Marauder, falling into step beside him with his jaunty walk.

Remus sighed again and followed too, beckoning Peter. Soon, all four were walking in a brotherly clump of people; Sirius grinning appreciatively at what was to come, Remus and Peter shooting concerned looks at James.

"Avery, you _cock._"

James had yelled down the corridor. Avery and Mulciber, who were just leaving their classroom, looked up in alarm. The other students from that particular Charms class, a mixture of Ravenclaws and Slytherins, began to shuffle off stealthily, not wanting to be caught in the tornado that James Potter would surely release.

It only took the Death-Eaters-to-be a few moments for the shock to dissipate, their faces twisting into cocky smirks.

"What, Potter?"

"How dare you. How fucking _dare _you."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"No?" James' voice had dropped from an angry yell to a low, dangerous tone, voiced through gritted teeth as he pulled his wand from his robes. "So what were you doing yesterday lunch time, eh?"

"I believe we were eating." Avery's expression had turned cold, hard. "What do you believe?"

"Are you serious?" Remus Lupin said sharply, his eyes narrowed. Okay, maybe beating these two to a pulp _was _worth it…

For once, Padfoot stopped himself from saying "No, _I'm _Sirius".

"Let me tell you _one thing_, Avery." James spat, pointing his wand at the Slytherin's throat before he could pull out his own. "Just _one thing_. You can insult me all you like. You can taunt, you can sneer. You can aim curses at me behind my back. Whatever. But the _moment _you threatened Lily Evans was the moment when you reserved your bed at St Mungo's, do you hear me?"

He jabbed the wand.

"_Do you hear me_?"

Avery refused to back down.

"What are you going to do, Potter?" He dared, his eyes narrowed to slits. "Things are changing. Your little Mudblood fancy wouldn't last two seconds in the outside world - "

Perhaps James could have stopped himself a little longer.

Maybe there had been potential to have an actual conversation with Avery. Some sort of epic prologue, a tense build up to the actual fight, something to embellish the story with when it was retold all over the castle.

That wasn't how James Potter did things.

With a yelled incantation and a huge burst of light, Prongs blasted Avery into the wall behind him. He didn't even bother to scan the damage before releasing a barrage of curses at the fallen student, determined to blow the sorry excuse for a human being into oblivion.

At the exact same moment, the other three Marauders had unleashed their own wands and shouted, their voices blending into each others', multi-coloured jets of light aimed at Avery and Mulciber. The Death-Eaters-in-training were fighting back, streaks of light whizzing past James' ear, Sirius' arm, Remus' neck, Peter's rib…

_"STUPEFY!"_

_"IMPEDIMENTA!"_

_"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"_

_"LEVICORPUS!"_

Hexes were bouncing off the walls of the castle… students shrieked… Nearly Headless Nick had appeared from nowhere and was trying to calm the Marauders as they furiously sent curse after curse at the Death Eaters, and soon enough, McGonagall was on the scene, shrieking shrilly, then realising that no-one was listening to her -

_BANG._

"ALL OF YOU. IN MY OFFICE. _NOW_."

_The pair of Slytherins didn't leave the Hospital Wing for two weeks._


End file.
